DIFFUN, Quirino – The Quirino State University (QSU) recently established a clonal nursery facility as part of the project, “Development of Clonal Propagation Protocols for Native Forest and Fruit-Bearing Tree Species of Quirino and Nearby Provinces.”
Spearheaded by QSU Professor Dr. Edgar Benabise, the project aims to construct and maintain a clonal nursery facility and a hedge garden of selected tree species for clonal propagation activities.
According to Dr. Benabise, all project staff under this project were trained on macro-somatic clonal propagation. The team then surveyed, fenced, and mapped the location of the hedge garden.
With funding from the Philippine Council for Agriculture, Aquatic and Natural Resources Research and Development of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST-PCAARRD), the project team was able to develop a hardening nursery and hedge garden with seedlings of selected native tree species: bignai, kamagong, bani, bolong-eta, anabiong, and lubeg. The team also collected and sterilized the rooting medium for the first four chambers used in the propagation of cloned cuttings.
The facility was recently visited by the monitoring team of the Forestry and Environment Research Division (FERD) of DOST-PCAARRD. The two-day site visit was part of the monitoring and evaluation activities for the said PCAARRD-funded project.
Currently, the project team is still gathering data to determine the best cutting origin that will significantly increase the survival and rooting of various native tree stem cuttings. The project is on its second year of implementation and is expected to end on September 2021.